"Andre Norton - Darkness and Dawn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

from one of the tame herds. Fors gulped weakly. Such luck was a little uncanny. Now,
seeing that, he dared to stroke her nose. She shivered under his touch and then she
whinnied almost inquiringly. He patted her shoulder and then she nudged him playfully
with her nose. Fors laughed, tugging at the ragged forelock which bobbed between her
eyes.
"So now you remember, old lady? Good girl, good girl!"
There remained the problem of Lura and that must be solved as quickly as possible.
He unfastened the rope and pulled gently. The mare came after him willingly enough,
picking her way daintily through the piles of fallen brick.
Why hadn't she scented the cat on his clothes? Unless the rain had dampened itтАФBut
she had shown no fright at his handling.
He whistled the bird call for the second time, after he had snubbed the mare's lead
rope around a small tree. The answer to his summons came from down valley.
Apparently Lura was following the herd. Fors stood talking to his captive as he waited.
At last he ventured to rub down her flanks with tufts of grass. Then he felt her start and
tremble and he turned.
Lura sat in the open, her tail curled neatly over her forepaws. She yawned, her red
tongue pointing up and out, her eyes slitted, as if she had very little interest in the mare
which her hunting companion chose to fondle so stupidly.
The mare jerked back to the full length of the rope, her eyes showing white. Lura took
no notice of the open terror. The mare reared and gave a shrill scream. Fors tried to urge
Lura back. But the big cat paced in a circle about the captive, eyeing her speculatively
from all angles. The mare dropped back on four feet and shook her head, turning to keep
her attention ever upon the cat. It seemed as if she were now puzzled when the attack she
had expected had not come.
Maybe some message passed between the animals then. Fors never knew. But when
Lura finished her inspection, she turned away indifferently and the mare stopped
trembling. However, it was more than an hour before Fors improvised a bridle from the
rope and a saddle pad from his blanket. He climbed upon the bricks and managed to
throw his good leg over the mare's back.
She had been well trained by the Plainsman who had owned her and her pace was so
even that Fors, awkward and inexperienced at riding as he was, could keep his seat. He
headed her back on the road which had brought him to the valley and they came up into
the rolling fields once more.
In spite of the nagging ache of the wound Fors knew a surge of exultation and
happiness. He had won safely out of the Eyrie, after plundering the Star House. He had
dared the lowlands, had spent one night in the heart of a dead town, had crossed a river
through his own skill. He had spied successfully at the woods lake, faced the savage boar
from which even the best of the mountain hunters sometimes fled, and now he had a
horse under him. His weapons were to hand and the road open before him.
Judged unfit for the Star, cast aside by the Council was he? His even teeth gleamed in
a grin which bore some likeness to Lura's hunting snarl. Well, they would seeтАФsee that
Langdon's son, White Hair the MutantтАФwas as good as their best! He would prove that
to the whole Eyrie.
Lura drifted back and the mare side-stepped as if she were still none too pleased to
have the big cat venture so close. Fors jolted out of his daydreams, paid heed to his
surroundings.
There were piles of rubble scattered through the brush, skeletons of old buildings,
and, all at once, the mare's unshod hoofs raised a different sort of noise. She was picking
her way across pavements in which were set long straight lines of rusted tracks. Fors